Subject: ISSUE: header length limit with encoded words

From: Bjoern Hoehrmann <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 13:33:10 +0200

Hi,

  RFC 2616 defines RFC 2047 MIME word encoding for use with certain
header values, e.g. if they are defined to contain quoted strings.
RFC 2047 states:

  While there is no limit to the length of a multiple-line header
  field, each line of a header field that contains one or more
  'encoded-word's is limited to 76 characters.

  The length restrictions are included both to ease interoperability
  through internetwork mail gateways, and to impose a limit on the
  amount of lookahead a header parser must employ (while looking for
  a final ?= delimiter) before it can decide whether a token is an
  "encoded-word" or something else.

It seems to me this provision is not meant to apply to HTTP, and if
MIME word encoding is to stay with us in the next HTTP specification,
it should state that this line length limit does not apply to HTTP.

regards,
-- 
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